DO WE JUST MAKE HOBBY MAGS TO DRIVE PRICES UP???

As with others I’m sure, writing is a calling of mine. You guys have heard my complaints before, but lately I have felt better about what I have submitted to the world. Don’t know if this is because I was “downsized” from my last job and don’t really care much about what other people think of me or if it just age, experience or some other unrecognized influence. While I can continue to ponder that side of the why’s and how’s, I know that another side is just that I am slowly discovering the game as an old friend once told me. The more books I catalog, the more my true professional likes and dislikes congeal.

My blog is “The Transforming World of Collectible” and I think I have been waiting all my life to talk about this so-called transforming world.

In my last gig, I heard a lot about “disruption.” How do we disrupt this or disrupt that… How do we think about things in a different way and use that thinking to influence others to follow our path. While all of this makes sense when you take a step back, it is hard to see examples of this disruption outside the newfangled world of computers and technology that I just don’t understand. I suppose even if I did understand, I wouldn’t give a damn. I could care less about what new gadget I should have or how many new things I can strap on to tell me I have high cholesterol… I was recently cataloging an item for the site and must admit that I had to pause a moment.

I was holding true “disruption” in the collectible world in my hand!

What was I cataloging???

My newly discovered Issue #1 of Beckett Monthly from November, 1984. For those of you who don’t know what Beckett Monthly is, I will attempt to explain:

You know that thing that happened in the 1980’s when you woke up one day and baseball cards were cool again. That day in the 80’s when everyone looked around and collectively wondered where the cards they had as kids were. Could they still be in mom’s attic? The garage? THAT DAY WAS BROUGHT TO YOU BY DR. JAMES BECKETT!

Jim Beckett had been producing the Sport American Baseball Card Price Guide for years. These were yearly compendiums of sports card prices that I assume sold well. It wasn’t until this fateful little issue that we had a monthly periodical devoted to COLLECTIBLE PRICING though… The result – a baseball card market that exploded! More and more and more folks saw the magazine, subscribed to the magazine and were questioned by those who had seen the magazine. Everyone wanted baseball cards and Beckett was there monthly to remind us that they were highly collectible and that the prices were on the RISE… A truly important, if not the most important, magazine about a collectible.

If you are interested – Beckett is still going strong – STILL REMINDING US TO BUY OUR BASEBALL CARDS: